By Larry Fyffe
Through his creative imagination, Percy Shelley tends to present an optimistic poetic picture as to the workings of the Cosmos on both its micro- and micro- levels:
If winter comes can spring be far behind
Poet John Keats, leans to a darker view – as if to say:
If autumn comes can winter be far behind
The dualistic controller of the Cosmos in the Old Testament promises a summer to come but otherwise a long winter to stay should its inhabitants prove unworthy of His affection:
And He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children And the child to their fathers Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse (Malachi 4:6)
The New Testament expresses a more optimistic view ~ though winter is here now, summer will return soon:
And she shall bring forth a son And thou shalt call His name Jesus For He shall save His people from their sins (Matthew 1: 21)
The anti-AntiSemite Friedrich Nietzsche criticizes the teachings of Christianity.
Says Christian followers flitter back and forth between those he calls the “masters” and those he calls the “slaves”.
For instance, a Christian advocate claims that the Jewish Pharisees accuse Jesus of being a follower of the demonic Beelzebub:
This fellow doth not cast out devils But by Beelzebub the prince of the devils (Matthew 12:24 )
Says Nietzsche, the strong-willed who strive to better their situation in the here-and-now have a “master” morality that considers it “bad” to be weak like a slave.
Says that Christianity, though it flows from Judaism, is a religion established for everybody everywhere who considers s/he has little choice but to wait for a blissful reward in the Afterlife.
That is, Christianity is a “slave” morality that proclaims it’s “evil” to aspire to be in charge of one’s own household; figuratively speaking, the tough-minded God of the Hebrews be dead.
The narrator in the song lyrics below could be said to defend this slave-like point of view:
Say that he's a loser 'Cause he got no common sense Because he don't increase his worth At someone else's expense (Bob Dylan: Property Of Jesus)
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It doesn’t stop there; now it’s the Christians’ turn to cry. In the following lines (viewed from a Nietzschean perspective) it could be said that the always-present Satanic demon Beelzebub, the anti-Israelite Lord of the Flies (a Baalist signifier of death) is pretty much given free reign/rein on earth by the otherworldly Christian focus on the Afterlife:
Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly; to hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
(Bob Dylan: Neighborhood Bully)